Optical scanner systems are known and are in common use. These systems are critical components in such devices as bar code scanners, laser printers, and facsimile machines.
Optical scanner systems use a scanning mechanism which changes the optical path of a light beam incident to a moving mirror to create a scanning light beam. One method of creating a scanning light beam is to use a wobble mirror apparatus. A flat mirror mounted on an axle is connected to a galvanometer drive and wobbled back and forth to achieve the scanning effect by reflection of a light beam incident to the mirror. A sign wave input to the galvanometer drive is used to achieve the wobbling of the mirror. The upper normal scan speed limit is about 2,000 scans per minute. Commercial units have been produced that will scan at 1,000 scans per second, and these units conceivably can go as fast as 2,000 scans per second but the life of the unit is significantly reduced at these speeds.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,796,963 issued to Yoshimura discloses an apparatus using a flattened rotary polygonal facet mirror. This apparatus is capable of higher scan rates than the wobble mirror apparatus because the polygonal mirror is spun instead of wobbled.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,717,224 issued to Diehl and Kirsche discloses another scanning device. This device uses a rotating flat mirror which is tilted at an angle from 0.2.degree. to 2.degree. from a line perpendicular to the axis of rotation. The slanted mirror is mounted between two cylinders wedged end to end to hold the mirror on its slant. This apparatus is severely limited to allowing only a single input beam or source incident beam aligned along the axis of rotation of the cylinder-mirror complex. The beam is then reflected back in a cone-like fashion out the end of the cylinder. To be useful, complex post-reflection optics must be employed.